To be fair to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, meetings can be boring.
Ross doesn't hold a lot of meetings with senior staffers, a person familiar with the department told Politico, and the reason is pretty simple. Ross reportedly "tends to fall asleep" during them, which is not the best look in any work environment, let alone a key government agency. That's doubly true if you're the boss.
When Ross does have to attend meetings, the source told Politico that the department is very careful about scheduling them. "There's a small window where he's able to focus and pay attention and not fall asleep," the source said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Commerce officials have disputed those statements. Department Press Secretary Kevin Manning called Ross a "tireless worker" who travels often.
Still, some of the agency's top officials are reportedly doing what they can to shield Ross from testifying at congressional oversight hearings, like he did in March about the 2020 U.S. census citizenship question. They probably don't want him dozing off on C-SPAN, though he did stay awake last time.
Those reports were also disputed by the department, however. "He's obviously going to have to testify again," one official said. Read more about the reported disarray in the Commerce Department at Politico.
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
